Chelsea FC 2018/19. Is there really anything to be excited about?
SteemSports Presenter:@feekayo
SteemSports Editor:@scottybuckets
The Chelsea Football Club has really been some sort of an enigma recently; a unique case-study of inconsistency, of promise and disappointment. In the past four seasons Chelsea has won the league twice, that sounds really impressive, till you realize that within the same period Chelsea has had two absolutely implosive seasons and have finished out of the top four on both occasions.
To even the most neutral observers, this is a very disturbing trend. Chelsea completely whitewashed the league and won the league very comfortably one season and the next season absolutely fell apart with shocking football being played and the whole team looking like a complete shell of the team that was just recently the absolute darling of the English Premier League.
Two managers have already fallen by the wayside during this period. First was Jose Mourinho under whom Chelsea won the league with a whopping 87 points. This might not sound impressive by the 100 point standard set by Manchester City last year, but when you consider the EPL table shown below, you quickly realize that Chelsea won the League by a whopping 8 points, which is no mean feat in this rough and tumble EPL era.
The next season was an absolute implosion as Chelsea looked absolutely ragged from opening day. They finished the season with an unprecedented 50 points and 10th on the table, putting forward what was then the worst Premier League title defense ever.
There were rumors that Jose Mourinho had lost the dressing room and that his players wanted him fired for the way he handled the Eva Caniero affair. That's all hearsay but there is no smoke without fire. The Portuguese was replaced with the Italian Conte who in his first season absolutely swept everyone in the league away, using basically the same set of players that had fumbled so spectacularly under Mourinho. Winning the League with an impressive 93 points, just two points shy of the then record 95 points set by Mourinho's all conquering 2004/2005 squad.
History however repeated itself once again as Chelsea put together yet another shambolic shift in defending their premier league title; finishing a lowly fifth this time; improving on their previous mediocre season. Once again there were rumors of the coach losing the dressing room and the coach once again got sacked.
Chelsea fans everywhere most be hoping that Chelsea finally kick this newly developed habit of showing promise one season and then imploding the next. But before they get too far ahead of themselves, they would be hoping Chelsea can replicate the kind of form they showed under Antonio Conte in his first season in charge under fellow Italian, Mauricio Sarri.
There have been encouraging signs. When looking at last season with an analytical eye, it seems clear that from the offing it had the tells of the eventual woes that befell the club. First of all, Chelsea had an absolute shocker of a transfer window. With Diego Costa falling out of favor with the Italian Conte and being locked in basically a war with the manager. His replacement was Alvaro Morata who was experiencing his first stint as a starter in a big club.
Chelsea also inexplicably let Nemanja Matic leave for rivals Manchester United. His replacement was the untested Tiemoue Bakayoko who looked like an adequate replacement at the time. Chelsea should have bought more players but didn't. At least not any player that could have made their season better than the last. Diego Costa was gone, Matic was gone, squad depth wasn't improved, morale was low following the Diego Costa spat, and Chelsea even lost their long serving director of football to AS Monaco. But these are just excuses for what was a truly horrible season for Chelsea fans.
Has much changed this season? Chelsea seems to have a large squad of players these days compared to last season but is there much quality in those ranks? Mourinho's title winning core from 2014/15 lives on in Caesar Azpilicueta, Gary Cahill, Cesc Fabregas, Willian and Eden Hazard. These are proven serial winners. Do they have another great season in their tank? Mauricio Sarri, at sixty, is still an unproven manager. He remains trophy-less, despite leading Napoli to a record 93 points haul last season, in what was possibly the most impressive season by any runner's up you will ever see.
The season is young and Chelsea won their first match comfortably 3-0 away at Huddersfield on opening day... But should Chelsea fans really be excited by their prospects this season?
Thank you for following @steemsports and you can find me @feekayo
Yea it will be a wonderful season for the blues
They are only two games into the season but Sarri's ideas are already showing. Will be interesting to see how they do with Hazard back, think he will thrive under Sarri and get Chelsea a top 4 spot this season.
Great post, I agree with most of your points but seeing the way Chelsea are trying to play with Sarri, I think their future looks bright at least for a while, the important thing is to have a sense of stability, the board and Abramovich need to back Sarri as far as they can in the market, Chelsea have some world class players like Hazard and Kante but they need more than that if they want to establish a dinasty. Of course that is if everything goes according to plan and the new manager last longer than just one season.
I think Sarri is a step in the right direction but if they want to compete against City in the long term there's a lot more work to be done and you explained brilliantly in this text. Once again, great article!
Good post! I don't know much about Sarri but given the competitive nature of the EPL over the last 3 or so years I hope Chelsea did a thorough background check-up on him as it appears now increasingly the gaffer or team manager has to have exceptional man and team management skills.
Remember Antonio Conte had a spat with Luiz that saw him left out of the team, Diego Costa also left and went back to Athletico Madrid and the result was a shambolic title defense for the blues. I believe Jorginho will reinforce the midfield though.
Although Morata scored recently against Arsenal he wasn't prolific last season. He is key to Chelsea's performance this season.
I however think Man City is far ahead of everyone at the moment, but Liverpool looks very strong and will be in for it this year. I wish Chelsea best of luck though.